Dan Berkson - Anything for You

Dan Berkson - Anything for You
If there's one thing you can rely on from the Crosstown Rebels camp these days, it's that certain boxes are going to be ticked. Dan Berkson's new double A-sider is a prime example. Deep, wobbly bassline? Check! Sharp, prominent hats? Sure! Catchy, endlessly-repeating vocal phrase? Yes! It would be easy to criticise all of this, of course. But, to be honest, it works really, really well here.

"Anything for You" is beautifully understated, with an overriding sense of sadness evoked by the soft pulses and occasional keys, while the yearning "I'd give you anything" vocal sounds like the epitaph to an expired relationship—rather than, say, the excited anticipation that comes with one newly formed. It's simple, but far from crude, with tiny filter fluctuations giving it an almost progressive feel.

"Secrets" is much darker in tone and displays another common feature of Crosstown tracks of late: The uneasy feeling generated by sliding metallic waves that seem out of key with just about everything else going on in the track. Whether it develops this unease enough or not will depend on just how creepy you like your house, but it's certainly engaging enough for me and will doubtless be the cause of a few nervous 5 AM grins.